Award Winning Author Debra Shively Welch

I live in Central Ohio with my husband Mark of 26 years, and my 21-year-old son Christopher.  We live on a beautiful lake which I often feature in my writing and which has also played a part in my son’s publications as well.

A sushi chef, Chris loves other types of cooking as well and we are working on a cookbook titled Christopher’s Family Table, the emphasis being on the fact that not all family members are blood related, but are in fact, adopted.  Whether adopted through marriage (the married couple adopts each other’s family) or friends that you bring into your life forever, or the formal adoption of a child, these relationships are important to who we are and are often expressed through food.  Think about it.  Have you ever sat down to eat with someone you dislike?

I am also working on a sequel to my son’s book Christopher Bullfrog Catcher.  It is called Christopher Meets Buddy and teaches the proper care of a pet bird.  Subsequent books will address other pets.

In addition, I’m working on the sequel to Cedar Woman, titled Ista Numpa.  The readers of Cedar Woman wanted a book about Cedar Woman’s best friend Nickie, or Ista Numpa, so I am now taking notes, setting up an outline and filling out character sheets and a time line for this book.  It will deal mainly with domestic violence.

I am also working on, and have almost finished, an anthology of short stories and poems called Swinging Bridge.  All of the works are about a type of transition.  Walking across a swinging bridge can be very intimidating, and sometimes you’re afraid that you won’t make it to the other side…but you do.  That is the basic theme of this work.  It will be released this fall.

A percentage of royalties for all of our books goes to Operation Smile.  I do this in gratitude for my most precious gift, my son, adopted and born with cleft lip and palate.

Following are the URLs to my web page, FaceBook and Twitter pages:

http://debrashiveleywelchloveandwriting.blogspot.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DShiveleyWelch?ref=hl

https://twitter.com/DebraSWelch

 Debra's books and links to where you can find them:

 

Cedar Woman

Cedar Woman is a powerful book filled with courage, romance and the beliefs, ceremonies and language of the Lakota Sioux.  Travel with her to Columbus, Ohio as she rebuilds her life, and the lives of her family. Join her in the sweat lodge as she follows Zitka Mine to the fifth step of the edge of the world to find her father's soul.

Follow her to powwow where she meets her half side, and works toward her goal of establishing the first Central Ohio Native American restaurant in the nearby suburb of Westerville.

http://tinyurl.com/p469mlp

Son of My Soul – The Adoption of Christopher

It would be easy to accept this book as 'another adoption story', that is until you read it. From the first words the reader is caught up in the account, enthralled by not just the tale but the telling of it. Ms. Shiveley Welch's talent reveals the journey to love, her decision to adopt instead of giving birth, her new and wonderful child and most of all her earnest desire and steadfast belief that everything would come to pass.

Son of My Soul – The Adoption of Christopher is not just about the joys of motherhood, but is also a self-help book about breaking the circle of child abuse.  The author considers her childhood as ‘boot camp’ and uses the lessons learned from her own abuse to help her beloved son through many surgeries and therapies to correct cleft lip as the and palate.

http://tinyurl.com/pwy63dx

 

Just Chris by Christopher Shiveley Welch

Just Chris, is more than a boy telling of his life. It is a story that surely will bring encouragement to many who face challenges, feel worthless due to some physical handicap, or face rejection in anyway. It is a story of hope, courage and steadfast love. I believe Christopher has an exciting life ahead of him, and he will fly to heights that even he cannot imagine at this time. A great read, from a great young man.

http://tinyurl.com/p3gkwsk

A Very Special Child

A book written from the heart of a mother, one who adopted a child and found her true calling.  A Very Special Child unfolds the story of adoption in a spiritual way, explaining adoption to a child in a simple, lovely way.

http://tinyurl.com/orlktrs

Christopher Bullfrog Catcher

Christopher Bullfrog Catcher is a fun way to teach your child how to write. The reader is taught how to follow a simple formula in order to create their own special story. Add to that a guide on how to catch bullfrogs, and a message regarding the care and respect of these fascinating creatures, and you have a book that your child will want to pass on to their own children.

http://tinyurl.com/pkcxbue

 

Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams

Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams is a murder mystery co-written by cousins, Debra Shiveley Welch and Linda Lee Greene. Religion and murder combine in this breathless escape. A well written narrative that keeps the pages turning.

http://tinyurl.com/qxpdxnp

Interview:

1.      Why did you become a writer…was it a dream of yours since you were younger or did the desire to write happen later in your life?

I write, therefore I am.  That says it all.  I began writing at age nine and was first published at age 26.  I’ve always loved the music of words and am so thrilled when I manage to write something that makes me think, I can’t believe I wrote that!  An example is the beginning of the first chapter in Cedar Woman:

Slowly, slowly, Grandfather Sun began his ascent.  Gliding, floating, he moved above the horizon as blue and lavender and mauve filled the sky.

            Birdsong married with fragrant air, as Wakan Tanka[1]  stretched His fingers across the sky, pushing back the night, heralding the dawning of a new day.

It is truly thrilling when you see progression in your writing.  I’m addicted.  I admit it.

2.      What was the inspiration for your latest work?

My son and I were adopted by a woman of the Lakota Sioux.  We went through the naming, sweat lodge, pipe and hunkapi ceremonies.  Hunkapi means “making of relatives.”  So I became her Tanksa (older sister) and she is my Cuwayla (younger sister).   Traditionally the Lakota do not consider a person’s siblings as the aunts and uncles of their children.  They are also their parents.  So a child will have multiple parents and his or her cousins are brothers and sisters.  Therefore, Chris calls my sister Ina (mother) and her son Logan calls me the same.

It is a beautiful culture where the honoring of the elders, military, veterans, etc. is central and their love of the environment is phenomenal.

I wrote Cedar Woman to honor my sister, Julie Spotted Eagle Horse Martineau.  She has treated me with more kindness and respect than most of my blood relatives and I love her with all of my heart.

 

3.      What was the most interesting research you had to do for any of your books? 

Learning the Lakota language!  I still can’t pronounce a lot of it correctly, but it was good for my, at that time, 50 + year brain to learn something new.

Learning the customs and basic beliefs was also fascinating.

4.      I know you are an award winning author, Debra. Tell me about the awards you’ve won, and the books you won them for.

A Very Special Child won FaithWriter’s Gold Seal of Approval – Outstanding Read;

Son of My Soul – The Adoption of Christopher won FaithWriter’s Gold Seal of Approval – Outstanding Read, Best Non-Fiction of 2010 and Editor’s Choice for 2011.  Cedar Woman has won Best Native American Fiction 2012.

5.      How did you decide to write books for kids? Have you always wanted to write children’s books, or did that come about later on?

I like to write in all genres.  I’m crazy about kids and like to produce books which not only entertain, but teach as well.

6.      You have also written books for adults.  How did that occur?

I like to mix it up.  A children’s book here, a cook book there, with a murder mystery or romance in between.  It keeps my brain hopping.

7.      What’s your writing schedule like?  When do you find time to write?

I am editor in chief for Saga Books and usually begin my day with a few hours of editing other people’s works.  I then try to get an hour or two for short stories, or sometimes I blog.  Finally I get to work on my own projects which can last until the wee hours of the morning.

8.      Do you have any writing idiosyncrasies?

I don’t know if you would call them idiosyncrasies, but I like to have a beverage, snack and whatever else I’ll need at the ready so that I don’t have to get up to get something and thereby break my train of thought.  I also like to use character sheets in which I ‘map out’ a character’s hair color, eyes, height, weight, time of birth, likes, dislikes.  It makes them real to me.  I also like to write with a timeline so that I don’t get lost or make a mistake in writing.

I love to research and particularly enjoy interviewing people who I think can help me make a story more believable.

For instance, in Cedar Woman I chose a restaurant that does exist.  I researched its many incarnations covering well over 100 years and the hauntings.  I interviewed, not only people in the library and local historians, but people who now work in that restaurant as to what they’ve seen and heard.

9.      What’s the most challenging aspect of writing for you?

Getting it right!  If I say it’s July 18, 2010 at sunrise and name the time, I check to make sure that the sunrise was indeed at the time I gave, that I was correct on what day of the week it happened and the weather for that day.

While co-writing Jesus Gandhi Oma Mae Adams I interviewed the person who gives permission for individuals to be buried at Arlington Cemetery.

I want it to be correct with no slip ups, so I check, and then I check and then I double check.

---

[1] Wah-kah Than-kah – Mysterious Creator

The End Times

The end times, the rapture, the war, and the election between Obama and Romney are the topics of nearly every TV news show, Internet blogs, newspapers, and every other type of media. In fact, I think we've been inundated with it to the point that it's difficult to think of anything else.

Top news--is Obama the anti-Christ spoken of in the Bible? No, I don't think so, but he could be the forerunner since he has all ready accepted a position with the UN. (Which it is illegal for a sitting president to accept any paid position. However, "legal" has never been a word in Obama's vocabulary. Or apparently, Cong-resses either, and I suggest whenever they are up for re-election, they are replaced too. Lack of action on their part has allowed a sitting president to completely ignore the Constitution and the law in general.) But Obama may be the one who ushers in the person referred to as the anti-Christ. The UN is most certainly going to try and be our one-world governing entity, and probably for the rise of the one-world religion, Muslim, which is certainly Obama's religion.

I was raised in church when I visited my grandmother in the summer. She was "old" at the time of my birth in 1958, so I only had her until she was 82. She was the love of my life, and I still miss her every day. My grandmother taught me about Jesus and the Bible. She taught me what it meant to be "saved" and how to serve God. She also taught me that Jesus would return in the clouds one day, and this was called the "rapture". I was taught that the rapture was broken into three parts: The Pre-Tribulation Rapture; The Mid-Tribulation Rapture; and The Post-Tribulation Rapture. I was always taught the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, in which Christ will return just before the world is so bad no one can survive, and take all of His children home.

In the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, the world has completely turned from God, and are embracing foreign gods, like when the children of Israel were crossing the wilderness, they begged Aaron to make them a god from the gold they brought out of Egypt. Prices are sky high, jobs aren't available and crime is on the rise. The world is slowly going to ruin but Jesus arrives just in time to save the Christians from going through what is to come.

The Mid-Tribulation Rapture says that the world is in even worse shape. Food is hard to find, the world has turned from anything good. Crime, sex, pornography, and a lackadaisical way of viewing the world has arrived. There are those who will say this is impossible because God will never poor out His wrath on the righteous. However, if you read the Bible, you will find that the Lord did allow His disciples to be stoned to death, boiled in oil, beheaded, hung, nailed to a cross upside down, and other horrendous ends of life. So what makes us so special some 2,000+ years later that God is going to keep us out of any type of danger? We are just human like the rest of the world, and I believe we are going to be tested through at least half of the tribulation, the last days before Christ returns to rule and reign.

The Post-Tribulation Rapture is believed that Christians will go through the entire tribulation just like non-Christians as a test of our faithfulness to God. If we survive the tribulation, and miss out on being beheaded for not confessing and giving our lives over to the new world religion, God will rapture us and take us to Heaven.

Even though I was raised to believe in the Pre-Tribulation Rapture, shortly after I was licensed as a minister in 1995, I received three visions from God about the end of days that led me to believe in the Mid-Tribulation.

The first vision was of Japan. There was a massive earthquake, and Japan was no longer there. Then a chain of earthquakes went up the west coast of South America and North America to Russia. While these earthquakes were opening the earth, I could see San Francisco, which was in ruins. Fires from broken mains spewed into the sky, it was just a wasteland. There were so many dead, there weren't enough alive to dig for any who might have lived, and the National Guard was trying to help, but it was useless because there was a Tsunami from the Japanese earthquake, that rolled over the west coast, putting out the fires, but leaving the entire west coast, parts of Nevada and most of Arizona, and some of New Mexico as ocean view property.

The fire has gone on and was spreading over the mid-west. I kept looking for my children, but my husband, (who was Bear at that time), was no where to be found. When I told him about this vision, he said it must be because he was helping people. Later I knew why I didn't see him, he would pass away before this event ever occurs. I found a type of bunker made from cement, and my youngest son and I got in it, and the fire blew over us but we were unharmed. When we came out, there was a dark-haired woman with a large, blue school bus, filled with boxes of macaroni & cheese. I actually laughed and said, "Lord, you know if mac & cheese is all there is to eat, I'll die from starvation!" I absolutely hate the stuff.

A few nights later, Bear & I went to a worship and deliverance meeting and I met this woman I had never seen before. We talked a bit, but later she asked for my phone number, (yes, this was long before email), and she called me the next day. I invited her over. I write down everything the Lord tells me, or things I think are from the Lord, and have all of this written in longhand in notebooks. We sat down to talk and she starts telling me about a dream the Lord gave her in 1975 about the end of times, and they were nearly identical to mine. I began to shake and told her about the bus and macaroni & cheese. She looked like she had seen a ghost, and told me she had a bus, it was blue and had 600 pounds of macaroni & cheese on it. God always confirms what He tells us so that we will know we aren't just dream-ing.

The last of the dreams dealt with the aftermath of these earthquakes and tidal waves. It's not a pretty sight but one I constantly pray about so I will never forget, and will always be ready when the Lord is.

I also believe in the mid-tribulation rapture because the Bible says we will never see the wrath of God, which in the book of Revelation 14 is also the verses that those who believe in a pre-tribulation rapture use to deny the mid-tribulation.

But this is what I believe. The Bible is very clear in chapter 14 that the following happens:

There is much preaching to every tongue and nation so those who have never accepted Christ as their Savior still have a chance to.

In 14:7-The angels announce that God's wrath is about to come and this is like a last call to Christianity. And the announcement that Babylon has fallen is made.

Then comes the Mark of the Beast. Revelation 14:9 warns those who take the Mark will drink the wine of God's wrath. 14:11 says they will be tormented day & night with fire and brimstone forever.

Verses 12 & 13 calls for the patience of the Saints. (Those who know the Lord.) And those who have remained patient and died because of their belief in God will be rewarded.

Verses 14-16 calls for the harvest of the Saints. The angel with the sickle goes among the Christians and brings the living Christians home for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. The rest of chapter 14 goes on to tell what happens to those who turned their backs on God and worshiped the beast.

While the Bible says that only the Father knows the exact time and hour when any event in the Bible is going to occur, especially the rapture and the end times, we are told to be on the look out for the signs of Christ's return. It's kind of like earthquakes. Geologists can read the rumblings underground and know an earth-quake is going to happen, they just can't say exactly when it will happen. Some of the things we can look for are:

Matthew 24:5 "For many will come in my name, saying, I am Christ, and will mislead many."

Matthew 24:11 "And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many."

We have seen this all over the world. People claiming they are Christ, or sent by Christ to save the world. Jim Jones, David Koresh are but two I've seen in my own life. They are but paving a way for the real anti-christ who will come saying he is Jesus, and do marvelous signs and deceive many.

Matthew 24:6 "And you will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars; see that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

I was born in October 1958, just in that time, 54 years, look how many wars has occurred. Korea, the Middle East always at war, Ireland, the attacks on our Marines, and our warships, just to name a few. And the earthquakes. I can't even count the number of earthquakes there has been that I was in, much less, the number of earthquakes all over the world.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

We've seen the wars and earthquakes, and now the famines. Look how many countries are starving, and how many organizations are trying to feed them just a little rice so they won't starve to death. They have no crops because of droughts, no medical care, AIDS is out of control in African countries, and those who do find work, is generally out of their own country and in places where they harvest poppies or other drugs just to feed their families.

Matthew 24:7 "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes."

Although I used this earlier, you can go to this link to see the current number of earthquakes that happen every day. http://www.iris.edu/seismon/

Matthew 24:8-9 "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.  Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations on account of my name."

Who is Jesus talking about in this verse? Christians. Yes, the believers in Jesus will be killed and hated for believing in Jesus. It happens to missionaries all of the time. In China, it's illegal to possess a Christian Bible, the penalty is death. In Muslim countries, death is also the penalty for preaching Jesus. And it's going on right now.

Matthew 24:14 "And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in the whole world for a witness to all the nations, and then the end shall come."

Even though they may be killed, there are people who work to fulfill the great commission of preaching Jesus to the whole world. Even here in the United States, people are pulled away from the Gospel by stupidity. Vampire Clubs, Werewolf Clubs, Satanic worship, to name a few. There is no other name under Heaven by which you will be saved. (Acts 4:12)

The apostle Paul tells us-
II Timothy 3:1-5,7 "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come.  For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of god; holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth."

Apostasy is also another sign of the end times. This is the falling away of 1) the gospel by individuals and 2) the church falling away from the gospel and preaching "good time" messages that do not point out sin, nor does it point to Jesus as the only One who can save us.

So, like the seismologists who can't say exactly when the earthquake will strike, they can give an approximate time. The same goes for us. We might not know the exact time of Jesus' return, we can look around at what is happening in the world and see that the time is getting close.

If you are not ready to meet Jesus face-to-face, accept him with a thankful heart and ask Him to forgive your sins and lead you in the way He wants you to go. Find a Bible-believing church, such as a Pentecostal or Assembly of God, and go. Go to both of them and see which you belong in and are comfortable with the pastor, and has new Christian classes, or something along those lines. Get a Bible. The NIV is a good Bible for new Christians because it's written in current day language that makes it easy to understand.

God bless you and keep you until we meet in Heaven!

The Love of My Children & Myself

Over the past few weeks I have experienced an all time low, and I've been extremely depressed. My daughter, her husband, and their two children, who we have shared a home with for the past year and a half, moved to California. My granddaughter is two and a half, and my grandson turned a year old on May 11, 2012. I have lived with these two their entire lives, and I was in California with my daughter when her daughter was born. Their son was born out here and I was there then too. My grandson and I share such a close bond, I feel as if my daughter took my own child from me. And I know my grandson knew something was not right, since just before they drove away, I held him, bawling my eyes out, and he didn't squirm or move, he just laid his head on my shoulder and waited. I love that boy so much, and these weeks without him have been killing me. I cry at the thought of him, and his picture is my screensaver, so I see his cute little face every time I boot my pc or shut it down.

I don't know how to not miss him and his sister, or my daughter and her husband, who is like a son to me as well. Shortly after they moved, my youngest son also moved to California, although a different part, where his wife has been living. A week or so before that, my youngest daughter and her family moved to Texas. So I am all out of grandchildren who live nearby. And now my son, who lives in Missouri, and his family, are moving to yet another part of California. 


I have not felt like doing much lately, and really haven't done much at all. My husband also works out of state, so I have literally been home alone for several weeks. Thank goodness for my doggies, who I know will never leave me. They have been my only comfort.


This past week though, I have been watching my usual shows on TBN and the Church Channel, and one of the shows I never miss is Andrew Wommack. He has been teaching on self-centerdness (Is that a word? Oh, well), and while I have always considered myself as not being self-centered, since I've been a mother since age sixteen, and I've always had a houseful of kids to take care of, and then grandkids, and dogs, and I became a pastor and evangelist, and a drug and alcohol counselor, there have always been others to think of before myself. But as I listened to this teaching each day, I came to realize that even I am guilty of being self-centered. 


There are several other verses on this subject, but the following two are my favorites.  


"Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.  For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." Matthew 16:24-25


"I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me." Galatians 2:20


Yet, if I believe these, and I do, then why am I suddenly doubting my sacrifice of self for the heavenly cause? Is it simply a guilty conscience due to a preacher's impassioned words, or conviction of the Holy Spirit? I had to think on these things and consider the past several weeks since my daughter and her family moved away. Of course we expect our children to grow up and move out on their own. And with my older daughter, that has happened, but she usually came home time and again after her bits of time away from home. Even after she moved away to California to be with the man she is now married to, they did move in with us when their daughter was about six or eight months old, and have been here every since. My youngest daughter never moved out for more than a few weeks at a time. Even after she married, she lived at home, while her husband lived with his mother, for about the first six months of their marriage.


Even though we expect our children to move out on their own at some point, whether to go to college, or due to marriage, or perhaps they go to work straight out of high school, as parents, we know they will move out. We also wait for those weekend visits home, and we wait for the announcements of impending parenthood from them, and then we wait for them to bring those little bundles of joy home to visit Nana and Papa, Grams and Gramps, Nanny and Poppy, Grandma and Grandpa, Granny and Grampy, or whatever term we decide our grandchildren will call us. With all of my other grandchildren, I've been pretty much the normal Nana. I send birthday and Christmas presents, wait for school pictures, feel proud when I get news of honor roll and winning sports teams, and show up for high school graduations, weddings, and other events I wouldn't miss for anything. I try not to be too invasive in my children's lives, and I try not to be too nosey in the way they raise their children, and I really try not to be critical, although I've been informed a time or two that I've stuck my nose in where it didn't belong and wasn't welcomed. Hey, I'm normal, give me a break, it wasn't as if I intended to hurt anyone's feelings or make anyone feel as if I was criticizing their parenting techniques. In all honesty, I really was trying to help. I've been there and done that and was only trying to save my child the heartache and heart break I know will come from raising their own children. 


Perhaps it is better my children are all in another state, where my presence doesn't upset or offend anyone. I can visit once or twice a year and continue with the presents and money, and otherwise stay out of their lives where I'm unwanted. Yes, it hurts my feelings. Yes, I feel as if I've been ganged up on since they all left at once. And not mentioning the fact that my youngest has moved back to town, but is apparently not speaking to me because I found out by accident that she is here, I will continue to move forward.


I try not to be self-centered. I try not to think that if I'm not involved in their lives something horrible will happen, and I am the only one who can prevent these things, or the only one who knows how to handle them. I raised kids on my own, and when you do that, you become over-involved, and you become dominant, and you think you should run everyone's lives. After all, when you've done it for so long, and they all turned out rather well, you must know what you're doing, right? Well, apparently not according to them.


So to my children, I apologize. I also promise to stay out of your lives, and I promise to quit butting in, and telling you how you should be doing things, or how I would do them differently. I have raised you to be the men and women you are, and I am proud of each one of you. Because of that I have to trust that you did listen to me at least a little bit while you were growing up and know how to raise your own kids and lead your own lives. I am also going to try and figure out how to live my life without you, which I haven't done since I was sixteen, but I'm sure I'll figure it out. I have a pretty good husband who gets me through these moments when I feel like my only purpose in life was to be your mother and Nana to your children.


I know God has another plan for my life and if I will just quit crying over losing all of you, I will probably be able to hear what that is. So yes, I have discovered that feeling this loss is a form of self-centeredness. It is something I have to come to terms with, learn how to deal with, and move past. It is another stage of my life that I have to move past, because until I do, I won't be able to move into the new stage of my life that God has planned for me.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future." Jeremiah 29:11

I'm looking forward to those plans and the future God has in store for me. I love you all very much, but my love for God comes first, before 
you, before me, before everything. And I'm looking forward to it.